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I found this photo of The Lamp Sisters recently and since I always find it nice to put faces to the records I listen to, I thought I’d go ahead and share it here with you.

The Lamp Sisters hailed from Detroit, starting out as backup singers for who else but name bearer Buddy Lamp. Buddy, a recording star who jumped to Don Robey’s Duke imprint in 1968, wielded plenty of attention and commercial success that could easily highlight band members to the masses during intermissions. Robey likely saw both the talent and selling points of three attractive ladies that already stood so close to the limelight and signed the group to a recording deal. The results were four 45s issued on Duke over the next few years, none of which seemed to climb the charts to much-coveted positions. Continue reading →

Tonight I’m proud to be the special guest on the Phunkwhatchaheard Show on KTRU 91.7 FM in Houston. The only radio show in town really challenging listeners with an array of eclectic soulful music. It’s their 100th episode and Jaekim was kind enough to ask me to put together a set of some eccentric soul and funk records for the occasion. I’ll bring a couple brand new things and I swear to keep it entertaining at the least. Thursday 7-8pm Central Time or stream at http://www.ktru.org

I never thought I’d get my act together to put on a soul and funk 45 night in Houston, let alone one that I’m proud of. Here I am three years later and we’re still going strong thanks to all the kind folks out there that love their music enough to get out of the house. Special thanks go out to Shawn at Boondocks and DJ Witnes, it was their continual encouragement and downright prodding at times that have made this night happen. Come out tonight and help celebrate three years by shaking your tail feather on the dance floor.

The new owner of Leon’s Lounge will apparently be doing an all vinyl playlist when it reopens. Chris Gray over at the Houston Press hit me up to write about some soul albums that I think should be on rotation in such circumstance.

Leon’s Lounge, the venerable Midtown throwback dive, is currently closed for renovations as new owner Pete Mitchell (Under the Volcano) gives it a good scrubbing, but it should be back open before too much longer. Maybe as soon as next month. Earlier this week, Rocks Off heard some equally good news. Instead of a jukebox like at the Volcano – which is reportedly about to be updated for the first time since Lucinda Williams’ Little Honey and Hayes Carll’s Trouble In Mind were new albums – Mitchell is in the process of accumulating an LP library for the bar so that when Leon’s reopens, the music will be vinyl only. We also heard that it would be all vintage ’50s, ’60s and ’70s soul and R&B, but since have been corrected that Mitchell’s bar will spin all kinds of music. Nevertheless, no lounge should be without as much product from Stax/Volt, Motown, King, Chess and Duke/Peacock – to name just a few labels – as it can get its hands on. Rocks Off hit up Houston’s resident expert on the subject, our buddy, onetime co-author and Dirty Honey DJ Brett Koshkin, earlier this afternoon for his suggestions on which LPs Mitchell should add to the Leon’s library. Take it away, Brett…

I was caught briefly on video speaking about the Bayou City Soul Project at DiverseWorks. Fortunately, you can’t see my ugly mug too well in the video but you can see a few nice promo photos of Houston soul musicians Bobo Mr Soul, The TSU Toronadoes as well as the Masters of Soul.